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New York Times

US: NYT to add API, opening content

Read Write Web reports that the New York Times is to introduce an API on its website, opening its content for users to program and structure. The Times' decision will have ramifications for the newspaper industry; the API is considered to be the next stage in the evolution of the newspaper.

"[An API] will give developers access to their vast amounts of well-researched data, and allows the paper's brand to be spread easily across the web," Read Write Web's Josh Catone writes.

The API is the latest in a series of online innovations by the Times. Over the past year, the paper has created an RSS feed, a Facebook application, and its own news aggregator, Blogrunner. But the API will give users the freedom to personalize and organize content, a major step.

"The plan is definitely to open the code up," New York Times CTO Marc Frons says. "How far we don't know."

Click here to learn more about API.

Source: Read Write Web through I Want Media

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Author

Liam Berkowitz

Date

2008-05-28 11:46

Inside innovation at The New York Times

After a tour of The New York Times this week, blogger Robert Scoble discussed some interesting additions at the Grey Lady.

Gadgets coming out of the Research and Development department included:

-a prototype newspaper rack that could print out a customized version of the paper

-a thin book reader following a discussion of metadata being collected by the Times. Scoble writes, "They have these gadgets so they can develop new ways of delivering content to those devices."

-a display featuring the results of NYT's new partnership with Google Earth

He reports that The Times' new archive initiative, the Time Machine, which debuted late February in beta, will be released soon. Scoble also learned that a Mac version of the Times Reader will be available in the next few days.

Source: Scobleizer through Journerdism

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Author

Kelley Vendeland

Date

2008-05-21 15:51

Göteborg:NYT digital news editor on integration: gradual is successful

Jim Roberts, digital news editor at The New York Times, will speak of the newsroom integration process undergone by the paper of record at the upcoming World Editors Forum, to be held June 1-4 in Gothenburg, Sweden.

He'll describe the last 3 years at the Times, as "it has attempted to make what I consider to be a historic shift in its mission," towards a much more rounded and "almost platform-agnostic" approach.

Roberts isn't one of those online editors who have an instinctive aversion for print, to the contrary - he worked as a print journalist and editor, as well as a National news editor at the Times. Although he resists calling the Times 'print-centric', it's a fact that print still accounts for over 80% of the company's revenues, and that "our main mission still is putting out a print publication," he said.

One key factor in the NYT's integration process was the gradual approach adopted by the newspaper, instead of "a radical shakeup" - similar to the Guardian's approach in that respect.

"There was a change in newsroom culture and it had its rocky moments, I certainly can't minimize that," said Roberts.

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Author

Jean Yves Chainon

Date

2008-05-14 11:56

NYT editor answers reader questions, nytimes.com is "our future"

From May 5-9, New York Times assistant managing editor Susan Edgerley is answering questions from readers May 5-9 on nytimes.com, explaining how the paper is reinventing itself and integrating its newsroom.

Edgerley admitted that at this point the Times' website couldn't possibly fund the 1,275 staffers of the newsroom.

"But NYTimes.com is growing -- in readers and revenue -- at a much, much faster clip than the print paper. Is it our future? You bet."

Can the New York Times really claim it is 'reinventing' itself?

Yes, said Edgerley. "Journalists who used to worry about one deadline a day now have a deadline every minute. They are telling stories not only through words and pictures but also through audio and video and interactive maps and graphics."

Faced with news consumers' changing habits, the NYT's coverage - as for other newspapers - has arguably evolved. "Two years ago, we might have been hesitant to break a scoop on the Web," said Edgerley, "Now we put the story out there and figure out how to advance it for the next day's paper."

Considering the Web is the future for the NYT, one reader asked whether earning a print journalism degree was a waste of time. No, according to Edgerley. The art of storytelling remains.

But "I would be surprised if you don't find yourself picking up all different kinds of Web skills over the arc of your career, and that's good, too."

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Author

Jean Yves Chainon

Date

2008-05-07 10:26

US: PEJ:Wall Street Journal changes after Murdoch with more politics, still different than NY Times

The new Wall Street Journal was rolled out earlier this week with some significant changes. Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) examines how the 119-year-old WSJ has changed since Rupert Murdoch took control, focusing on the front page every other weekday, and how the WSJ stands up next to The New York Times, Murdoch's declared competitor.

- The front page changed focus in the first four months from business coverage to domestic politics and international issues.
- From Dec. 13, 2007 to March 13, 2008, the front page covered politics and the presidential campaign three times as much, from 5% (four months before Murdoch) to 18%.
- Consequently, coverage of corporate American decreased more than half to 14% of front page space, compared to 30% pre-Murdoch.
- Coverage of foreign events that "do not directly involve the U.S." jumped from 18% to 25%. 9% of that relates to overseas economic and business affairs.
- Health and medicine dropped from 5% to less than 1%.
- Transportation issues dropped from 3% to 0%.
- Environmental topics dropped from 3% to 1%.

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Author

Carolyn Lo

Date

2008-04-25 10:03

US NYT: The Grey Lady partners Google Earth for geotagged news

The New York Times has partnered with Google to allow users to track news geographically through the Google Earth platform.

Users can search and track news by location (from country, state and city down to neighborhoods), as well as by section (Foreign, Travel, Sports...). Google Earth automatically adds stories to its database when these are uploaded to NYTimes.com and tagged with location names.

Each item showed on Google Earth includes headlines and ledes to the stories.

How do users activate this function? Said Wei Luo, Tech Lead Manager at Google Earth, on the Lat Long Blog:

"To experience this new way of getting your daily dose of news, launch the latest version of Google Earth and make sure the 'Geographic Web' folder is turned on.

"Click on a New York Times placemark and you will see the latest news and features pertaining to that geographic region. Want to see more than just headlines? Click on the "Show this layer" button at the top of the preview bubble and you'll get a list of news articles dating back one month."

Google Earth's NYT layer is updated every 15 minutes and includes articles from the last 30 days. This seems like yet another user-friendly and innovative way to deliver newspaper news outside of the traditional platforms.

Source: WebProNews through I Want Media

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Author

Jean Yves Chainon

Date

2008-04-09 09:50

Wall Street Journal increases political coverage to challenge NY Times

The Wall Street Journal's front page has become very political in the four months since Rupert Murdoch took over. Though it isn't news that the WSJ is moving toward a "general news model", the paper is becoming a high-profile paper in the presidential campaign, according to Washington Post writer Howard Kurtz, a step in their goal of challenging the New York Times "for national supremacy."

In his first public comments as WSJ publisher, Robert Thomson, former Editor of Murdoch's Times of London, said, "I think American journalism has some soul-searching to do. American newspapers generally have kept up poorly with change... If there's a presumption that what you might call New York Times journalism is the pinnacle of our profession, the profession is in some difficulty." He adds that Murdoch is "clearly interested in challenging the journalistic establishment."

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Author

Carolyn Lo

Date

2008-03-31 14:56

US: The New York Times introduced 3 page index of print and online news

Yesterday The New York Times introduced "Inside the Times," which is an index of online and print news highlights running on pages 2-4 in section A. An editor's note stated the purpose is "to help readers navigate and mine the paper and its Web site."

Do readers really need a navigational tool for news? Is "Inside the Times" using up space that could be used for news?

Source: Portfolio.com through Media Bistro

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Author

Carolyn Lo

Date

2008-03-26 16:44

New York Times names Vindu Goel deputy technology editor

The New York Times has appointed Vindu Goel as their Deputy Technology Editor, a new position created to improve technology coverage.

He will primarily focus on web coverage, working with Tech Editor Damon Darlin, Deputy Tech Editor David Gallagher, and Deputy Business Editor for Online News Kevin McKenna on the technology team.

Goel has worked at The Wall Street Journal, The Plain Dealer in Cleveland as a reporter, and at the San Josie (California) Mercury News as an editor on the business desk, as an editorial writer, as a columnist, and as a blogger.

Source: Editor & Publisher

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Author

Carolyn Lo

Date

2008-03-20 14:26

Pros and cons of newspaper blogs

Some people may think that blogs do not have credibility since they are usually associated with pretentious reporting based on gossip. But New York Times Blogger Saul Hansell doesn't see the difference between blogs and reviews, columns, and first-person features. He argues that many newspaper blog posts are more analytical and casual than typical news articles, and at the Times, the standard for fairness and reporting are the same for blogs and articles.

The benefits of newspaper blogs, according to Hansell, are that they allow readers, competitors, and sources to comment and engage in more instantaneous and accessible discussion than in the newspaper format. Blogs also enhance an article by adding more information and opening up discussions that flow from the original article. For example, Hansell provides some history about AOL's top ad job to supplement a story he wrote with NYT reporter Louise Story for the paper.

He dismisses the idea of renaming blogs as "RealTime Reporting", which attempts to establish a separate brand identity. As with anything on a newspaper, readers have the power to decide if a blog, or whatever they choose to call it, is worth their time.

In respone, Miande, a reader of Hansell's blog, writes that blogging "detracts from the time, concentration and energy required to conduct authentic reporting. It is sad to see once-reputable news organizations transform themselves into "reality" programs."

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Author

Carolyn Lo

Date

2008-03-17 16:36

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